


Moving On, Revenge, and Other Extreme Sports

by Supreme Zarc (tatersalad5001)



Series: Yu-Gi-Oh! Analyses [3]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS
Genre: Archived From Tumblr, Archived From datanamines Blog, Cross-Posted on Tumblr, Gen, Meta Essay, Nonfiction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-04
Updated: 2018-12-04
Packaged: 2019-09-06 22:34:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 3,330
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16841764
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tatersalad5001/pseuds/Supreme%20Zarc
Summary: Analyzing Yusaku, Takeru, Ryoken, Ai, and some of their relationships. Archived from tumblr.





	1. Ryoken, the Cafe Nom Regular

**Author's Note:**

> thought it'd be good to group all these together. bringing these over from tumblr. you can find me on tumblr as datanamines.
> 
> this is a more fun-spirited one. from back before ryoken being the one who helped yusaku through the incident was confirmed but like, the first episode we really got a glimpse at the fact that this was a thing. it's mostly about ryoken being a regular at kolter's hot dog stand. the hot dog stand is my favorite i'm obsessed.

  


it was already kinda implied in hindsight, but like. the second picture, we’ve confirmed from spectre’s flashback and yusaku’s own words that this is how revolver looks outside of link vrains. the guy in the first picture has the same haircut (of what we can see), it’s just a little longer now. it was probably obvious, but their conversation that was something along the lines of “this will be my visit” “are you moving?” “something like that” aligns pretty well with the recent revelation that the knights of hanoi will also be destroyed when the tower of hanoi is complete. with these revelations in mind, i just want to reiterate that a couple of things are actually true in this series and actually happened:

  * revolver probably lives somewhere nearby
  * revolver was, for a time, a regular customer at kusanagi’s truck. probably getting hot dogs or something
  * kusanagi and yusaku have seen revolver multiple times in person off-screen, and had no idea
  * revolver has seen playmaker in person several times and had no idea
  * revolver has bought hot dogs multiple times from playmaker’s, like, best friend. with no idea
  * revolver is no longer buying hot dogs from playmaker’s, like, best friend. not because he’s moving away or because he doesn’t want to, but because he’s probably about to die, and dead people cannot buy hot dogs
  * revolver probably wasn’t even getting hot dogs from kusanagi for any ulterior motive. he knows now that playmaker was one of the six children from the incident, but we don’t know if revolver knows which one, or even what he looked like. he doesn’t seem to pay much attention to yusaku when he’s there, either. nothing revolver has said or done implies that he knows. from there we can assume
  * revolver just genuinely likes kusanagi’s food



also,

boy, way to go for that and give the protagonist and current main antagonist similar hairstyles, huh

[#also. rests chin on hand. love the way yusaku's colors are like the bisexual flag and revolver's are like the asexual flag](http://datanamines.tumblr.com/tagged/also.-rests-chin-on-hand.-love-the-way-yusaku%27s-colors-are-like-the-bisexual-flag-and-revolver%27s-are-like-the-asexual-flag)


	2. Takeru - Farewell to Despair

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> about that great sort of thing where takeru's trauma centers around a dark-attribute monster and yet as part of his effort to recover, he follows after the kid who created the dark-attribute ignis.
> 
> takeru being already completely over the trama that the incident caused is kinda. not great vrains. especially when you look at people like yusaku and ryoken and jin. i don't buy that, but uh, otherwise. the good stuff

in light of these past few episodes, i just want to take a minute to talk about takeru

this has probably already been said and all, but you know.

when it comes to the victims of the lost incident, well…there’s quite a bit we don’t know about most involved, but what we do know is how this event affected them. ryoken buried himself in guilt both ways, spectre finally found a purpose and something to strive for and began pursuing it, jin wasn’t able to begin recovering in any way until the beginning of season two…but let’s focus on takeru and yusaku for a moment.

for yusaku, ‘time stopped’ after that moment. takeru became ‘stuck in the past’. neither of them were able to move on and start looking towards the future. they both suffered greatly from the events of this, yusaku closed himself off, both of them stopped dueling.

but at the very least, yusaku was able to hold onto a source of strength from that time, a voice telling him to think of three reasons to keep living, keep fighting. by holding onto those words yusaku was able to make it through, able to at least survive in the years afterwards, able to find the strength to fight to get the closure he needed. takeru didn’t get that.

and takeru, well….yusaku and takeru’s trauma seem to be taking different forms here. for yusaku, it was losing the duels, the pain involved, the threat of food being withheld, the disconnection from much of his past. takeru seems to have centralized it in the one monster that symbolized all this for him, the monster that probably inflicted the worst of it all onto him, a monster that was probably absolutely terrifying to behold in virtual reality at the age of six. and that’s despair from the dark.

for yusaku, “time stopped moving”. he fell into darkness, unable to move forward. he dedicated himself to getting answers, he dedicated himself to revenge. he took up the tool that hurt him out of necessity, kept fighting, and managed to save others in the process, even if that was only a secondary goal. not to say that yusaku doesn’t care about other people at all and won’t help them if he’s there and he needs it, but he’s not overly invested in most people. with yusaku’s revenge now fulfilled, he can finally start at least seeing a future in front of him, whereas before, if something were to happen to him in his quest, well, he was willing to accept that.

takeru, meanwhile, became rooted in the past. in many ways, what takeru went through after was similar to what happened to yusaku. but because takeru was gone, his parents were taken from him. takeru had source of strength to hold onto during the incident and in the years afterwards. he starts skipping class, he changes his hair, he cant even seem to keep up to date with modern technology. he can’t figure out what he wants for his future, probably can’t imagine it at all. instead he holds himself back with the people he lost, and the one thing that represents everything that’s gone wrong in his life: despair from the dark.

takeru only takes an interest in link vrains, in playmaker, in den city, because flame pushes him in the right direction. he only pulls out his duel disk and takes out his cards again because flame pushes him in the right direction. if flame hadn’t been able to make contact with flame, takeru would still probably be completely stagnant.

here’s where this all ties together and gets interesting.

all monsters have an attribute. and for non-divine, non-joke attributes, the incident made an ignis for each attribute, based on data from the kids. how exactly each attribute ties with each kid is hard to say in terms of how each originally ended up making their specific ignis. but the connections of the kids’ present to each attribute is a bit more clear. takeru, obviously, has the phoenix motif. he decided to follow playmaker and became reborn, reincarnated himself as soulburner, someone who can take action instead of being stuck in the past. yusaku remains very closed off, doesn’t waste time on people that don’t deserve it, for ten years remained stuck in darkness, and he lurks in the shadows as the hacker playmaker, someone no one can figure anything about, who spends most of his time hacking into vrains, getting into secure, off-limits areas. 

despair from the dark is a dark attribute monster.

for takeru, moving forward had to involve many things. obviously he hasn’t moved on completely, and it’s not like i expect him to. just seeing despair against the dark sends him into a panic attack, his trauma is very real and all that. he obviously hasn’t moved on from that, but he’s by now at least begun to move forward in some ways. dueling again is one obviously, taking back what the incident took from him. while both yusaku and takeru were both fans of dueling in the past, takeru seems interested in reclaiming it, while yusaku mostly still seems to use it as a means to an end. then he was pushed to consider what he wants to do with his future. because with takeru’s grandfather, it didn’t seem to be that takeru didn’t fit into the mold most do; rather, it was about what takeru wanted. the problem wasn’t takeru getting kicked out of school, it was that he was worried that this wasn’t the direction takeru wanted for his life. this is all getting takeru to mentally move forward.

emotionally, he’s begun to open up more again. before the move, takeru pushes out most people, most people think of him as unfriendly. but now he’s more open, he’s friendly with yusaku and he’s even friendly with shima, who’s about as far removed from the situation as it gets. takeru and yusaku have a common goal, and to an extent, their acquaintanceship is a means to an end. takeru really doesn’t have anything to gain with being nice to shima, all shima did was reveal the duel club’s existence to takeru. he’s opening up at least a bit, and being friendly. this is something yusaku’s been shown to do before the incident, but hasn’t really done much since. 

then, there’s the actual physically moving part. takeru moves away and enrolls in a new school and gets himself involved with vrains. and he starts wearing his hair the way he did before the incident again, too. he’s putting physical distance between himself and the place where he’s felt stuck for so long, and despite separating himself from the people who really cared about him up to that point, this will probably help him in the long run, too. 

and finally, there’s the symbolism in all this, where it comes together.

despair from the dark, the thing at the center of takeru’s trauma, is a dark attribute monster.

yusaku fujiki, playmaker, the person takeru is allying himself with now, is associated with the dark attribute ignis.

for ten years, takeru hid himself away from the dark. did what he needed to to avoid it. 

now, he’s taken the steps he’s needed to take, and he’s actively pursuing the dark instead, chasing after it.

he’s allying himself with the dark, saving it.

where darkness before was the thing hold him down, rooting him in the past, now darkness is what’s pulling him forward into the future.

and yeah, chasing after that darkness makes takeru vulnerable to it. it’s not like takeru’s perfectly fine and healthy just because he’s moving forward. we all relapse, we get haunted by flashbacks, and the things that hurt us don’t just go away, they can rear their heads again easily. 

but by letting that darkness in, letting darkness become something positive for him rather than negative, letting it lead him into the future, takeru can reincarnate into the person he actually wants to be, the kind of person he once was before darkness took hold. darkness doesn’t always have to be _bad_. 


	3. Yusaku & Ryoken - No Room to Talk

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> from during ryoken's duel against windy
> 
> yusaku: what if we make decisions not clouded by our pasts  
> ryoken: you're really going to say this? yeah? you? after you're giant revenge trip?  
> me: ryoken's right you know

ngl ryoken’s got a fair point here yusaku

yusaku you can say ‘revenge will only lead to more hatred and i know because i’ve been in that spot’ and all that. but like. yusaku, you _couldn’t move on_ until you defeated the knights of hanoi. and you defeated them and moved on. you _couldn’t move on_ until you got your revenge, and you got your revenge and moved on. you really can’t tell ryoken not to chase down revenge and to live in the past because this is the exact path you were on and it helped you. the only reason you care now to try to ward ryoken now is because he turned out to be such an important part of your past, if he was almost anyone else you wouldn’t care. yusaku, you never really…….the path you went down helped you. it wasn’t ideal sure but it helped you. you don’t really have a leg to stand on here to tell ryoken to stand down on it. ryoken’s just as fucked up from the whole thing as the rest of you

yeah, ryoken gearing to kill the ignis is super not ideal and he needs to stop but you’re going about it the super wrong way my dude, i’m not sure there’s anything you can say or do man, unless you like, stand against him

ryoken’s by all appearances willing to work at your side on all this, but only if you stand against the ignis. this isn’t going to work yusaku, the ignis gave up already and you should probably do the same at this moment. this isn’t the time


	4. Yusaku & Ai - Not So Different After All

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> from during yusaku's...third? duel against bohman, after it was revealed bohman was an AI made by lightning, and also that bohman was the one who destroyed cyberse world
> 
> musings on ai's declaration of revenge in this second season...after yusaku's whole thing being based on revenge in the first season

  


oh how the tables have turned….

it used to be yusaku, fixed on revenge, refusing to back down or forgive the knights of hanoi, only to discover that their leader was the one person giving him strength through his fight. and yusaku definitely still hates what happened but his fight is over and he’s forgiven ryoken, wants to reach out to him.

now, it’s ai. realizing the person who destroyed his homeworld was someone he looked up to and respected in his own way, the leader of the ignis. that lightning created his own ai to destroy their world to further their own goals. and ai can’t bring himself to hate or be completely against lightning or windy for what they’ve done. how can he? they’re his friends. but bohman is new, he never had such a connection with bohman, and bohman _is_ that ai that _actually destroyed their world._ it’s so much easier to hate bohman

and bohman _knows this_ , and is trying to provoke ai and let his emotions take over and steer him into making a mistake.

and where any concern over yusaku’s hatred getting the best of him might be gone, now we have that in _ai_.

the ignis are nothing like the people whose data they’re based on, huh 


	5. Ai - I'm Starting to Hate Humans, Too.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> from when yusaku and ai learned that earth was decompiled. musing's on ai's declaration: i'm starting to hate humans, too. and the possible, uh, possibilities that gives us

hey so this was a couple of episodes ago, i’m catching up on dub vrains kinda currently, and the next episode is supposed to be a duel between revolver and blood shepherd (which……….okay…….) (i went on reddit the other night and found out that a) everyone still hates takeru b) most people really like blue angel’s newest outfit transformation [???] and c) apparently blood shepherd is a popular character. and. i’m really upset about all these things but reddit has never not sucked so, you know) (but let’s get back on track)

i know this was a couple of episodes ago, been focusing on dub vrains lately, and the next episode is a duel between revolver and blood shepherd (but yusaku and skye will be in it still apparently!), but don’t think i’ve forgotten about this, vrains. don’t think i’m not still thinking about this whole scene. and i’m too tired for anything (for whatever reason….why am i so tired……) actually productive so. speculation time i guess. just. putting thoughts down

for all that yusaku will never call anyone his friend (given that the closest person to yusaku is kusanagi, and he’ll still call kusanagi his acquaintance) (the best we’ll really get out of yusaku is him calling someone a ‘partner’) (but we’re getting off topic, this isn’t a look into what makes yusaku yusaku, whether people are actually his friends or not, and why he may not acknowledge it), for all that yusaku doesn’t refer to anyone as his friend, it’s undeniable that yusaku and ai have built up a friendship at this point. they’re a team, and a good one, too. yusaku _does_ care about ai’s input on a situation, ai’s _instinct_ , and the sorts of things ai cares about. at least to a degree. for all intents and purposes, yusaku and ai are friends. especially by the usual standards of friendship for most yugioh series. and while that might not always be super relevant, it is kind of relevant here.

because this line has me thinking. about the possibilities.

friends having to fight against each other, friends turning against each other, is nothing new in yugioh. we’ve seen this sort of thing before. joey being controlled to fight against yugi. jesse being possessed and fighting against joey, chazz being controlled to fight against jaden, yubel’s altered mental state leading them to fight against jaden, yusei being forced to duel rally, yusei and jack dueling because jack stole stardust dragon, vector, that whole thing when astral realized yuma was hiding things from him, zarc, serena, rin, and ruri being controlled to fight against yuya and friends…. this isn’t anything yugioh hasn’t done before.

this isn’t a declaration that ai is gonna suddenly turn against yusaku and everyone else. i very much don’t think so! but we’re just considering possibilities here, and there’s so much more to everything than meets the eye.

in a lot of situations in yugioh that causes friends to turn against each other, it’s not by choice. mind control and possession aren’t uncommon things in yugioh. leaving out manipulation for a little bit… look at how often people’s minds are controlled or are straight up possessed by something or someone, in straight up any yugioh series. mind control was marik’s thing. these were straight up the plot in gx season two and a lot of season three, as well as zexal season one. season two of 5ds had quite a bit of it. it was a major plot point of the synchro dimension part of arc v.

it’s not exactly a foreign concept to vrains, either… skye was temporarily hijacked by a hanoi card and jin’s obviously been jacked for lightning’s purposes, just as a couple of examples.

artificial intelligence isn’t immune from these sorts of things, either, in vrains. bohman’s memories were altered by lightning more than once, and lightning and windy were fully intending to take ai down and rewrite him to better suit their purposes. they would have _done that_ if ryoken hadn’t joined in when he did.

ai’s declared a semi-hatred for humanity. and can he really be blamed, after everything with the knights of hanoi and sol technologies, everything both groups have done? but this isn’t a “i might be starting to hate humanity”, or a, “i’m starting to see why windy and lightning hate humanity”, or something along those lines. this is a straight up declaration, no room for doubt, “i’m starting to hate humanity”. 

there’s a lot of room for windy and lightning to take advantage of that and use it against ai here

or, if windy and lightning get another chance to do what they already were going to do to ai before, this could make it easier

i don’t think it’ll happen, but there’s a lot of room here for lightning and windy to e able to take ai and use him against the rest of the squad

and that, i find,

intriguing and exciting


	6. Haru

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> analysis of haru right before he died i guess lmao he really didn't do anything or mean much of anything did he, i only cared because i projected so hard

we’ve seen so little of haru, haru has done so little, and i’m glad to actually get a look into what haru’s thinking

haru came before bohman, an AI who wasn’t quite what lightning was going for but helped pave the way for bohman. since bohman is here now he can do all the heavy lifting, and haru has basically been shoved aside to, watch bohman, play pretend to motivate bohman, protect bohman once it comes down to it. and haru’s been coasting along, “it’s my job so that’s all that matters” trying to play good son but obviously he’s sick of it and i can’t blame him

lightning’s sent haru on a _suicide mission_ just to buy _bohman_ more time

when everyone around you is constantly comparing you to other people in a light where you’re worse than them, you’re constantly told everyone else is better than you, and no one believes in you, that’s gonna take a toll. doesn’t matter that haru’s an AI because obviously he’s _alive_ regardless. bohman’s the only one who seems to want him around and bohman doesn’t even believe in him. whether it’s a realistic assessment or not, well, words still mean things.

the last time revolver had a showdown with lightning and windy, they made these comments about how dr kogami never believed in him or else he never would’ve made the ignis. if that’s true, then lightning’s no better. he did the same exact thing with haru and bohman

given haru’s position in all this, i wonder if he’s really going to stick with lightning and bohman. hes got about two reasons to do as he’s told, and about one hundred reasons to jump ship. i wouldn’t be surprised if he’s considering it, because, being in this same position before, all i could think about was getting away from it all

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> #my position was never this extreme but it's like looking in a fucking mirror


End file.
